I sent away my Nexus 5X for repair under warranty and yesterday when I followed up on the status was told that the repair company had no more replacement units to send and another company had issued an RA credit note to the company I purchased the phone from (Noel Leeming).

At the moment I am in communication with Noel Leeming as to what this means as until I called NL, they had no idea

Assuming that a credit note means what I think it means (available credit in order to use on the purchase of a new phone), I am trying to figure out how I turn that credit note into cold hard cash, seeing as I have already used cold hard cash to purchase another phone (which was done at Noel Leeming, and the same branch as the Nexus was purchased at)

Anyone know if I can turn a credit note into cash or am I forced to accept credit that I have no need for?

IANAL. My understanding of the CGA is that you are not obligated to accept a credit note as replacement when they are unable to repair or replace a faulty item (or any conditions which meet the CGA criteria for the consumer being allowed to reject an item). I believe they have to offer a refund by way of cash, cheque, or bank/card transaction.

I believe under the CGA if they are unable to repair or replace, they must offer you a refund and cannot force you to accept a store credit (which is essentially what a credit note is.)

Have a chat with NL and see what they can do for you- I've had good experiences in the past when an Item I purchased was not fit for purpose (issues with my Nexus 6P), and they initially offered me a store credit, but conceded and offered me a full refund.

I think given you also purchased your replacement phone from them should be a good bargaining chip in this case to make things go smoothly, but speak with the Manager and try that way first, before pulling out the CGA.

Thanks for the update, I'm interested to see how this goes. My wife's 5X from NL hit the bootloop issue a couple of weeks ago and I sent it through to Fonefix. We hadn't heard from them but they did dispatch the handset out again, however it was delivered somewhere in Auckland and not back to us. I suspect we may be in line for the same experience!